vitriol answered by Keep Coming: the program that can't be provoked
he found out all that these veteran White Flaggers would do as a Group when he like vocally wished them harm was nod furiously in empathetic Identification and shout with maddening cheer ‘Keep Coming!’
Context
Gately's conversion mechanism, and AA's structural genius: the newcomer cannot get thrown out, so his most venomous attempts to provoke expulsion are simply absorbed and reframed as honest sharing. New Gately sprayed vitriol trying to get booted; the Group answered every insult with "Keep Coming!" until he found himself, absurdly, "a prodigy of vitriolic spine." Because you're In the moment you say you're In and no one can kick you out, the program disarms resistance by refusing to be a wall to push against — and the Crocodile's advice distills the whole discipline: stop talking, "take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth," and for once actually listen.